So, I thought I would introduce myself by giving a rather long-winded write up of my keyboard journey throughout the years. Seems rather appropriate given that this is a website dedicated to keyboards, right/ What better way to use one than to write a long biography. 
I have a relatively long history with mechanical keyboards. In fact, the first āmechanical keyboardā I used was actually:
I mean, this really is a mechanical keyboard isnāt it? Yes, I had an Underwood No. 5 that my family had acquired when we were cleaning out a family house back in the early 1980ās. I actually used this to write several essays for my English class in Junior High School. But, that was a rather short lived as soon as I started using computers.
Which was within a year or two of messing around with the Underwood. While I was still in Jr. High, we had an area that had an Apple ][, but I only messed with it a little, and didnāt really think anything of the keyboard. When I made it to High School we had a computer lab area. Most of the systems in the lab were Dec VT-100 terminals hooked up to a hacked PDP-11/04. But, those werenāt all that interesting to meā¦ Instead there was a computer that I found far more interesting.
And that computer was an IMSAI-8080. Not familiar with it? Well, if you have seen the movie War Games you have seen the computer. It was just a big box with a bunch of red LEDās, and red and blue toggle switches on the front of it. But, I also remember the keyboard from it for a reason that is unusual: the appearance of it. It wasnāt typical of other keyboards. This keyboard had a translucent top and front, with wood side panels attached to it, and there was a clear Cherry logo on the case.
The thing is, Iāve never seen another keyboard case that looked anything like it, and Iāve never seen a Cherry keyboard that looked like it. The closest I have seen is the G80-0662 from the keyboard layout standpoint. I think it was a custom case that someone took a G80-0662 keyboard unit and mounted it in. This fits mainly because (a) the key layout matches my (admittedly faulty) memory, and (b) it used a fifteen pin connector, which was probably converted via a custom cable to work with the IMSAI.
But, honestly, I only remember the look of that keyboard, not the typing experience at all. The fist keyboard that struck me in terms of typing experience came a few years later when my father decided that he needed a PC for his home office. And, while the Apple ][ was around, and they had introduced the Lisa, my dad didnāt want to look in that direction. Instead he wanted a business machine, and of course if you say the words business and machine together, there is only one company you can think of.
So, yep, the first PC that my parents owned, and I had regular access to was an IBM PC XT, with an original Model F keyboard. And, as anyone will say, the experience of using a Model F keyboard, indeed any of the classic IBM keyboards, will leave an impression.
Now a year or two later, seeing as I was getting ready to go to college and there was a push towards getting students to have their own personal computers, my father decided that I should have a computer when I went off to school. And of course IBM was the best computer that you could have, right? So he decided to purchase an IBM PC for me to take to collegeā¦unfortunately it was an IBM PCjr.
Now fortunately, mine didnāt have the original chicklet keyboard. But, it was still that keyboard. One of the least usable keyboards in the history of PCās, and one of IBMās biggest failures in the PC market place. So, after my freshman year of college, I got a job and raised half of the money for a new computer, and sold the PCjrā¦ And I ended up getting an IBM PS/2 Model 30 for the rest of my college life. Yes, I had the most popular keyboard IBM ever produced: the Model M.
And, I have to say, I loved that keyboard. At one point during college I accidentally dropped it down a flight of cement stairs, only to find one or two small scratches on the case, an literally no other damage to it. Even after the rest of the PS/2 gave up the ghost, I kept the keyboard and used it with the computer that replaced it. I basically used that keyboard up until it was dead.
When I needed to replace that keyboard, I knew that I wanted something good. But, by this point, we had entered the period where there werenāt a lot of good keyboards around. Companies like Northgate were no longer, and there really wasnāt a lot of information out there on good keyboards. So, I donāt even recall what I ended up using.
However, that would only be true until I heard about Das Keyboard from Fab on the Linux Outlaws podcast. His ranting got me to order one of their keyboards (blue switches, of course, Iām not some linear animal after having used keyboards with great tactility and sound). I used that keyboard for seven or eight years, before it started developing issues (several of the switches started acting erratically, which eventually lead to their failure), and I wasnāt in a position to do anything about repairing it. (Long story, but I was basically unemployed as I was taking care of a terminally ill relative.)
And, now that things have changed again, and Iāve gotten back to doing a lot more computer based work, I wanted to get a good keyboard again. So, as I started looking around, I saw that mechanical keyboards have been on the rise again due to the combination of the custom mechanical keyboard groups, and gamers who wanted / needed more from their keyboard.
So, now I am sitting here typing on my 71 Key keyboard, with Box Jadeās and double shot PBT key caps. If youād told me just a couple of years ago that I would actually hand build a keyboard (even from a kit), or actually go out and buy 30+ keyboards to evaluate, or purchase 20+ sets of key caps, and multiple sets of switches (I have at least 6 different sets of switches here) I would have scoffed. But here I am, waiting on my order of the Duck One Three TKL version and a couple of Leopold keyboards. And Iām thinking about ordering a couple more 71 key keyboards to evaluate, pre-ordering the Zealios Clickiez, and ordering in some more sets of Kaihl Box switches to try outā¦
